More Durango

I was looking back and I guess I forgot to mention some of the other things from our Durango trip. We rode on the Durango-Silverton coal fired train while we were there (pictures on site).  The main reason was it was the time of year when the aspens are turning into the bright yellow/golden colors. The ride left Durango at 8:30 AM. We rode in an enclosed car. We thought it might be too cool to be in one of the open air cars. All the cars were filled to capacity. The ride took approximately 3 hours one-way to Silverton. The aspen leaves progressively turned brighter the higher we went in altitude. It wasa great ride. We had a couple of hours to kill before the return trip. We ate at Grumpy's on Main Street, next to the Grand Imperial Hotel. We had a French onion soup that was fantastic. While eating we listened to a young lady, Lacey Black, play the piano. She didn't use sheet music and supposedly knows around 1,000 songs by memory. She was very good. The Main Street is only 2-3 blocks long. Before we knew it we were out of time and headed back to the train. Many of the older group on the train had been traveling together and went back to Durango by bus. This left many empty seats on the train. This made the return trip my favorite because I was able to move about, spending much of my time in an open air car. It wasn't cold at all and it was much better for taking pictures. Also, I was able to switch back and forth from one side of the car to the other . I highly recommend the open-air car versus the closed car. Being able to see an unobstructed view and being able to stick your head out the look down or up was incredible. The time flew by. If we do this again I will opt for the open air car. I think I would also just ride the train one direction, most likely ride the bus to Silverton and ride the train back to Durango. Some young couples had kids and six hours wasobviously too much.  There is one consideration one must keep in mind. The engine is coal-fired, so embers do fly back. You don't want to keep your head outside too long. Periodically, one of the employees would come along and sweep the black, dead embers from inside the car out onto the platform. Eye protection of some sort is a must. If you wear glasses or sunglasses, you should be fine. I recommend the train ride.
On the way back home we took a detour by way of Albuquerque. The balloon festival was going on. We had been there specifically for it a few years back and it was terrificseeing all the balloons in the air at one. We were there, right below, when the Smokey the Bear balloon ran into a radio tower and stuck. We watched as the old gentleman pilot and two small boys climbed all the way to the a point where they could be rescued, which was almost all the way to the ground. This year there were issues with the weather. We saw many balloons taking off from the motel, but when we went out to see them all but two were already on the ground. It was still a nice drive. On the way to Albuquerque we stopped at Chaco Canyon to see early ruins (pictures on site). A neat site in the middle of nowhere. These are not cliff-dwellings, but above ground dwellings. Kivas were here as seen at the cliff-dwellings though. We did spend a day at Mesa Verde Park just west of Durango (pictures on site). Half of the cliff-dwellings had closed acouple of weeks earlier for the season. I highly recommend the Four Corners area for a road trip or vacation.
Also, as a side note, we went to the historical museum in Durango. From a series of displays I got a terrific idea for another book, a western. The Sherriff